Beekeeping in Europe and North America is no longer sustainable in its present form. We need to re-think our management methods from top to bottom – or face an unprecedented decline in the health and strength of the bee population and the end of honey as a pure, healthy food.
Intensive beekeeping – especially on a commercial scale – generates massive amounts of energy-consuming work in return for an unpredictable honey crop. Copious quantities of energy and water are consumed in manufacturing, cleaning and sterilizing equipment, rendering wax and cleaning up the inevitable, intractable, sticky mess. Transporting our kit around the countryside also burns carbon fuels by the tankful.
